I GET THE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE FROM THIS!

I GET THE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE FROM THIS!

(Chicago Tribune/New York Times/Frazer Chronicle)

While I was driving around town the other day, I was listening to my favorite radio station, "N.P.R." The guest (I don't know his name, his position, or from which organization he came from) said something that almost drove me off the road and into a grove of trees.

The statement was so bizarre that it left me almost speechless, almost, but not quite, it did however set me to thinking and I guess that is a good thing. I wondered just how far off this guy was, or maybe how far off I was in my thinking, after all, I have been known to make the occasional boo-boo myself.

Well it turns out that this joker was so far off base that he is laughable and like I said, I don't know who this guy is, or where he comes from, but he'd better go back there. At last count there were more than 140 countries that "entertained" a contingent of American troops.

That's right, from Cuba to Afghanistan, from El Salvador to Canada to Luxembourg, if there's not a McDonald's opened, there soon will be, cause American soldiers love their Mickey D's. To be fair, many of these occupations are manned by small contingents of American military personnel, but they still are on foreign soil and the meaning is undeniable.....the world's police force is watching.

The simple answer to occupation is that in most cases the vast majority of personnel are embassy guards, students or instructors at military schools, trainers or liaison. Talk about your "foot-print" American not only has a foot-print, but the foot is wearing combat boots.

And this N.P.R. guest, this guy I don't know the name of, or who he represents made a bold and bald faced lie, in one statement he set back the truth by at least 4 decades. He said that "America does not occupy countries," he did quantify his statement by saying that "since the war on terror, the U.S. has occupied both Iraq and Afghanistan, but that was because of the attack on September 11, 2001.”

OBAMA TURNS PAGE:

President Obama traveled to Afghanistan, Tuesday to hammer out a defining moment in the war on terror, in our relationship with Afghanistan, to "herald in a new future between the two countries, one without war, a new chapter."

There is only one problem with the "agreement," it involves American troops, American tax dollars, American troop deaths and American soldiers being injured. "My fellow Americans," Obama addressed soldiers against a backdrop of armored military vehicles and an American flag, "we've traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war, yet here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon."

It is true that troops will be withdrawn in 2014; it is true that less activity will mean less chance for death or injury from hostile action. It is also true that fewer troops, less military activity will mean less tax payer dollars.....yet the door remains "ajar" from which to launch new military attacks.

Afghanistan has been a warring society for hundreds of years, a country of tribes, and a wandering people who seemingly come and go as the wind does. The Afghan people will not become brief case carrying stock brokers overnight, if ever, and that's okay, their lifestyle is different from the average American's.

America does not have a "victory just over the next sand dune" in the Middle East, what we have, pure and simple is an interest, an interest in oil, and we want it.....oil. It's apparent that America’s need for petroleum products has overburdened our thought process. Obama blames Al Qaeda for our presence in the Middle East, as George W. Bush used to say, Al Qaeda, "they hate us, they want to kill us."

What Al Qaeda wants is for American soldiers to get the hell out of their country, they want the senseless collateral killings to stop, and they want to be left alone.....just like most Americans. The U.S. military killed Osama bin Laden a bit more than a year ago.....big woopy, the killings go on, the horrific injuries to both military and civilians continue.

The United States is not, I repeat, "not" the policeman of the world, we can't afford it and anyways, maybe, just maybe the world doesn't want our police-type help. Maybe just to be left alone, to continue down whatever path their societies lead them....."Gee," much like the good old United States of America did.